For decades, the single-family house surrounded by a white picket fence has symbolized the American dream of home ownership.

But these days those picture-perfect homes increasingly are occupied by renters, not owners — a new trend with roots in the foreclosure crisis 10 years earlier, according to a recent study by UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Tenants renting single-family homes make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S. housing market, but they are vastly overlooked, unable to benefit from some protections enjoyed by tenants living in apartments, the Terner Center researchers found. It’s an issue in the Bay Area — where high home prices and a shortage of houses for sale have locked many renters out of ownership.